Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Obama: Keith who?

…one ESPN personality is turning his on-screen appearances into an opportunity to promote the candidacy of a Dem presidential contender. Many sportscasters have their signature calls. From Stuart Scott's "boo-yah!" to Chris Berman's "back-back-back gone!," several of the ESPN announcers utter idiosyncratic phrases to underline signal athletic accomplishments. Fair enough. But watching ESPN's Kenny Mayne over the course of the last few days, I was surprised to notice that he has coined a new call. Home run at a crucial moment? Three-pointer to take the lead in a basketball game? "Obama!", exclaims Mayne.

We agree with this take...Mayne is just goofy, trying to use a culturally relevant reference to join the long list of popular Sportscenter catch-phrases. He may lean left, he may actually support Obama – but hey, this reference is just a marketing ploy.

Along the way, some unofficial rules have emerged between the candidate and his aide. From Mr. Obama: “One cardinal rule of the road is, we don’t watch CNN, the news or MSNBC. We don’t watch any talking heads or any politics. We watch ‘SportsCenter’ and argue about that.”

Question: when Kenny Mayne gets that plum appointment in the coming Obama administration, will will former Sportscenter host turned MSNBC talk show host Keith Olbermann name him a Worst Person in the World out of jealousy?

And when told that one of his newly appointed administration members was named a WPIW, will Obama reply, “Who named him that? Never heard of him.”

MORE: Might as well note, Obama lists CNN and MSNBC as separate from “the news”. We agree!